At 8:43 AM -0600 1/30/97, Gary S. Shogren wrote:>Dear B-Greekers,>>In Romans 14:17 you have "for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking=
,>but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit." I'll let interested>parties check out the Greek.>>Eating and drinking are predicate nominatives, and the triad at the end are>alternate ones. Obviously Paul is not strictly DEFINING the _basileia_ wit=
h>these P.N.'s. I like Dunn's suggestion that we translate "does not consist>in" these activities, and would observe that in the context Paul is saying>something like: "the kingdom of God does not operate on the level of food>scruples, and in fact does not concern itself with things like that. Focus>on the real issues of the Christian life.">>I think the pred. nouns convey a description of the Kingdom that is more>striking than, say, a predicate adjective. Sort of like the Johannine "God>is love" rather than "God is loving". I can't find any help in BDF or>Robertson on these types of predicates. Any thoughts on what you might cal=
l>it? or any resources?>>Additionally - 1 Cor. 4:20 says that the kingdom is not _en logw_ but _in>dunamei_ - a similar setup, but with prepositional phrases in the predicate=
=2E

I don't exactly see what's problematic here; I quite agree with everything
you say about Paul's intent in Romans 14:17. It occurs to me that you won't
find anything in particular in BDF about this because it's not so much a
matter of GRAMMAR (the predicate nominative construction) as it is a matter
of STYLE. These short pithy statements are very compact "sententiae;" you
might compare Callimachus' MEGA BIBLION MEGA KAKON, which has to be
explained in its context to be understood but which encapsulates a whole
literary philosophy; or such statements as CALEPA TA KALA. A perusal of the
sayings of the "Seven Sages" in Diels-Kranz _Fragmente der Vorsokratiker
#10 will disclose quite a few of these pithy formulae, and are there not
quite a few of them also among the sayings--aphorisms--of Jesus? Although I
haven't checked it, you might find something useful in Aune's book (title
escapes me right now) on literary types represented in the NT literature.